


A Million, Billion Miles

by OeufTrick



Category: Vocaloid
Genre: F/F, also vibed with those scenes when Chihiro was on the train in 'spirited away', lonely train aesthetic, loosely inspired by 'night on the galactic railroad'
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:14:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28287552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OeufTrick/pseuds/OeufTrick
Summary: Miku rides on a train passing through empty landscapes. There are no other passengers, until Luka boards. The lines between dreams and reality blur.
Relationships: Hatsune Miku/Megurine Luka
Kudos: 14





	A Million, Billion Miles

**Author's Note:**

> crosspost from FF.net, Chapter 4 of Short Cuts: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8348860/4/Short-Cuts
> 
> I always thought that this didn't quite fit in, tonally, with the rest of Short Cuts, which were all extremely silly. Breaking it out into its own fic here.

The girl sitting in the compartment of a train car going inexorably north by northwest was named Hatsune Miku. She was sitting next to an empty seat. Across from her were two similarly empty seats. Her sole companions on this long, long train ride were a paperback novel held in her lap (closed - she had decided not to start it until she got properly bored) and a heavy suitcase containing all the things necessary for her arrival at her destination.

The landscape was an unchanging sea of green field, stretching out into distant mountains, large hulking shapes that blocked out part of the orange-hued sky. Every now and then Miku saw small houses painted in faded white, accompanied by rickety fences. Did people really live out here in the middle of nowhere? Miku could hardly imagine it. Being born and raised in the city did absolutely nothing to help her picture the lives of people who lived out in the country, and she stared on in blank fascination.

Her fingers tapped against the cover of the book she brought, landing smoothly on the thick paper. Boredom had begun to scratch at the door to her mind like a dog locked outside. Miku wasn't sure of how long it had been since she first got on the train either - her cellphone had sputtered and died back when the train was pulling out of the station, and Miku didn't wear a watch. It could be anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours - the landscape had changed from electric cityscape to rural greenery so quickly. It did not occur to Miku to wonder why the train was completely empty. A few minutes (or what Miku thought were minutes - it could have been anywhere from a few seconds to an hour) later, Miku opened her book and began to read.

After twenty pages, the train began to slow. Miku looked up in brief interest but saw only the same green fields and the same dilapidated homes. The train station itself was little more than a normal house. Miku looked back down at the book, ready to sink herself back into its narrative.

"Mind if I sit here?" someone asked, breaking Miku out of the book's world, and Miku, startled by the sound of a human voice after so long a time of silence, looked up. Standing before her was a woman, slightly older than her.

Perhaps Miku's mind was in a more poetic state at the moment, perhaps it was the cast of sunset light through the train windows, but this woman was the most beautiful one Miku could recall seeing. There were some people whose eyes, by virtue of brilliance or shape, leave an impression in one's mind like a stamp, affecting us days after they were seen. Now, it was far too early for Miku to say whether or not this woman would leave an impression on her that would last for days, but she was certainly in the running.

"Um," said Miku. "I. Yes. I mean. No."

The woman smiled. It was one of those warm, open smiles that made one want to support them in every way just to see them smile again. "So I can?"

Miku looked all around the empty train compartment. If she didn't look directly at the woman, words came easier into her mouth. "Sure, but...why?"

"It's more fun to sit with someone than to sit by myself in an empty train compartment," said the woman with a laugh. "By the way, I'm Luka." With that, she sat herself across from Miku.

"I'm Miku," said Miku, and she tried to concentrate on her book once more but it was no longer possible with Luka sitting across from her. The inked black lines in the novel defied her understanding. Sentences as simple as "he wore a sparse auburn beard" were lost to her.

Luka rested her chin on her hand and looked out the window. Miku glanced up at her. Her heart was thudding against her chest and she was relatively sure that her face was bright red. She reprimanded herself inwardly - _stop, you're acting like a total weirdo, you literally just met her_ \- but trying to stop her turbulent emotions was like trying to stop a hurricane. For the first time, Miku became aware of the compartment's complete silence. Save for the chugging of the train's engine and the rattling of wheels on tracks, there was no sound. It pressed in all around her, compressed her heart. She wanted, badly, to open her mouth and say something, _anything_ , but her mind was a desolate wasteland.

Miku closed the book and put it to the side. Luka looked over and her eyebrows raised in interest.

"Oh," said Luka, "that's a good book. Did you finish it?"

Miku laughed and immediately hated herself for laughing because in her ears her laughter was a fake, high-pitched, trembly giggle that made her sound stupid. "No! No, I just wanted to save it for the rest of the ride."

Luka smiled. "Oh, that makes sense. It's a pretty long one. What made you decide to go?"

"Oh...well, I just have to meet someone," said Miku.

Luka blinked. "Oh, is that so...is it someone important to you?"

For a moment, Miku wasn't sure what to say - Luka sounded so solemn. "Well...uh, it's just my friend, she moved in recently, so I thought I'd stop by and say hello."

Luka's brow furrowed. "Stop by and say hello?"

"Yeah," Miku nodded. "I'll only be staying for a couple days at most, probably. What about you?"

Luka looked down at herself. Now that her attention was drawn to it, Miku noticed that her hair seemed to be slightly wet, as if she had just dunked it in a basin of water. It was a lustrous pink, a sweep over her snow and rose complexion. Miku felt her face heat up again and she looked away.

"I'm not sure," said Luka. "I guess I just wanted to be taken somewhere. Anywhere." Luka shrugged, a graceful movement of the shoulders, and looked outside again. "The place where I'm from...I just wanted to escape, really badly, so I got this ticket and got on the train."

"O-oh," said Miku, unsure of what to say to such a serious statement. "I'm sorry."

Luka glanced up and grinned at her. "That's alright. I'm leaving now, and I'm not going to go back there."

"Do you, um, have a place to stay once you get there?"

Luka laughed, as though Miku had said a particularly funny joke. "I'll find something."

 _You can stay with me_ , Miku wanted to say, but it seemed far too forward, so she only nodded and looked down at her hands. The light outside was fading, but the landscape remained the same.

"It's weird that we're the only two people in the train," ventured Miku after a period of silence.

"I wasn't expecting to find anyone else on the train, honestly," said Luka. "I thought this was a journey most people took alone."

"Uh...sorry."

"That's fine," said Luka with a smile, "I'm glad to have you here. It would be really lonely if I was by myself."

Miku brightened up at that. "Thanks! I'm, um, I'm glad you're here too. So..." Miku's eyes caught themselves on her abandoned book, "you read often?"

"That's right," answered Luka. "There's not much else to do where I'm from, and my family doesn't own any computers or TV sets."

"Geez," said Miku, appalled, "no wonder you wanted to escape! When we get off this train, I'm going to take you to the nearest electronics shop. You know what a cellphone is at least, right?"

"Of course," said Luka. "We're not _that_ far behind technologically. It's just that most of the people in my town don't pay attention to things like that. By the way," Luka took out a small scrap of paper from her pocket and a similarly small pen, "what's your number?"

Miku hastened to give Luka it, and Luka jotted it down. Miku watched the delicate curves of the numbers Luka formed, the slight imprint her pen's nib left on the paper.

"I'm from the city," said Miku once Luka finished, "so...I can't really imagine what it's like, I guess, without computers or TV. It sounds really..."

"Boring? You're right. It is boring. That's why I left. I hope it'll be more fun wherever we're going."

"It will!" said Miku, even though she hadn't been to their destination yet herself. "I can show you around. If you'll let me. Um, well," Miku caught herself and looked down, heat already invading her cheeks, "I haven't been there myself yet, but, I mean...well...we can be lost together!"

Luka laughed, a gentle bell's tinkle in the compartment. "Thanks, Miku. You're really sweet." She leaned back against the cushions of her seat and dug out her train ticket. "You know," she said, "this ticket can take you anywhere you want." Her voice became soft, dreamy. "Higher than the clouds, even. So it's funny we're going to the same destination."

"Um," said Miku, not entirely sure of what to say. Maybe to someone out in the sticks, a train ticket to another city would seem like going anywhere one wanted. Who was Miku to trample on someone's dreams? "Yeah, it's interesting."

"It must be fate," said Luka, and she laughed again.

Miku's eyes went wide and a fresh surge of blood rushed to her cheeks. "Fate?"

"Yeah, don't you think so?" Luka leaned forward. "We're the only two people on the train, and we're going to the same destination even though we could have gone somewhere else."

Miku tried to reply but her attention was seized by the soft scent of Luka - she smelled like sunshine, vanilla, cream - and her blue, blue eyes.

"Yes," said Miku, faintly, after far too long.

Luka smiled. "I'm glad."

The light outside was fading, faded, gone. The compartment was dark save for the soft shine of pale moonlight. Miku became aware of her own breathing, a steady in and out, loud and conspicuous in the compartment. Her eyes were caught completely on Luka's. There was an ache in her chest, a compulsion to just _go for it,_ to lean forward, close the distance-

"Oh," said Luka, pulling back, leaving Miku dizzied, "look! The stars are out."

"What?" said Miku, dazed, feeling the loss of Luka's closeness like a hammer's blow.

Luka pointed. The stars shone, pinpricks of light, dancing infinitely. There was a dim glowing arch in the sky, twisting and twining its way through the cosmos. "That's the Milky Way."

"I've never seen it before," said Miku, studying it. The most she knew about it was the dry, academic stuff she learned in school. She had never actually _seen_ it, and even though she could rattle off the facts about it in her head - it was made of stars, it was our galaxy, it showed up as a band because it was viewed from inside - actually seeing it was something quite different. It resembled a river of sorts, its banks an elaborate mass of stars.

"We must be reaching the end of the line," said Luka.

"Yeah," said Miku, suddenly feeling very tired. "We must be." She scanned the outside but all she saw was the same old landscape of the same old fields. "I don't see it though."

"Really?" said Luka, surprised. "You can't? Look, Miku," and she took Miku by the hand and pointed to a spot on the Milky Way. "I see it. It's the most beautiful country I've ever seen. It's eternity."

Miku looked but all she could see was a black nothingness in the band. "I..."

Luka squeezed Miku's hand and Miku looked down. Luka was so pale she seemed white. Miku wondered why she didn't notice before. Luka's hand was soft and cool on Miku's and Miku wanted badly to warm it up. A wave of loneliness crashed over her, splashing her in it, she was over her head in the desolation.

"Don't worry," said Luka with a gentle smile. "We'll go together. It's fate."

"Fate," Miku repeated. The train's rattling became softer, slower, the rocking of the cabin decreased into nothing as the train rumbled to a stop, right in the middle of the field of nowhere. Luka was getting up, tugging Miku to her feet, and then they were standing at the train doors. They slid open with a pneumatic hiss and outside Miku could see nothing but infinite blackness.

 _This is a dream_ , Miku thought. _It can't be anything else. I fell asleep in the cabin. Soon I will wake up._

"Luka," said Miku, and because this was a dream she leaned up and pressed her lips against her's. Luka's lips were cold as ice - she was getting colder and colder the more time passed - and she held very still as Miku kissed her.

When Miku pulled back Luka smiled at her.

"Come on, Miku," she said. "Let's go outside."

-o-o-o-

Miku opened her eyes.

She was sitting in the train cabin. The sky was bright - she must not have been asleep for very long. Her finger was wedged in the twentieth page of her book. Dazed, blinking tears and sleep from her eyes, Miku looked around. The train was full of people - some texting, some reading, some just sitting. Outside, low suburb buildings whisked by. Where was Luka? Miku looked across from her, but Luka had been replaced by a hefty old man reading the daily paper.

"E-excuse me," said Miku, "is this train going to Yamaha?"

The man nodded, turned a page. "That's the last stop."

"Was there a uh...a woman here, before," asked Miku, "kind of tall with pink hair?"

The man raised his eyebrow. "I've been sitting here since the last stop, and I didn't see anyone here before."

"O-oh," said Miku, chastened. "Okay." She stared back down at her book. Loss threatened to overtake her heart. So it had all been a dream. Luka had never existed outside of Miku's head. Miku bit her lip and fought the tears that threatened to appear. Because it was stupid - she shouldn't cry over a dream.

Miku spent the rest of the train ride in a slow, thick daze, the book abandoned by her side, staring out the window as the industrial scenery whizzed by. There were no green fields on this train route - what had Miku been thinking, really, this train doesn't even go through any rural areas - and slowly the train emptied out at each stop, though it never became completely empty as it was in the dream. The sky darkened.

After the second to last stop Miku dug out her phone. It had battery to spare. She sent Rin a quick text, letting her know that she would be arriving at the hour.

When the train pulled in at Yamaha, the sky was a dark blue. Miku could barely see the stars due to the city light pollution. People spilled out of the train, Miku among them, and her cellphone buzzed with a new text. She pulled out her phone and checked it.

_I'm here. Meet me at the nearest electronic shop._

Miku stared at her phone, her mind shorting out. It was from an unknown number. The world receded from her, the only thing she was aware of the small white screen of her phone.

She was barely aware of when she shoved the phone back in her pocket, of when she started to run towards the lights of the electronics shop, blinking and waving at her from a million, billion miles away.


End file.
